A first pass though the famous Arganil (18.72km) special brought the morning’s loop to a close before a regroup and tyre fitting zone. A frustrated Elfyn Evans continued to leak time to his rivals, as team-mate Kalle Rovanperä benefitted from minor tweaks to the settings on his Yaris to top the early times and move up to second place, three seconds behind Ott Tänak.
Takamoto Katsuta had complained of voltage issues on the third Yaris after the first stage and the Japanese did not start Arganil on his allotted time. Esapekka Lappi was stunned to discover he had dropped 16.8 seconds to eventual stage winner Rovanperä. The time loss put the Finn behind Evans and into seventh place in the overall standings.
Pierre-Louis Loubet slipped to sixth after a ragged run saw the French crew clear the stop line with smoke coming from the car. Marshals were on hand with a fire extinguisher to prevent any serious issues.
Andreas Mikkelsen was the quickest of the early WRC2 drivers on a stage where Sami Pajari stopped after four kilometres and Adrien Fourmaux saw his lead trimmed to 6.1 seconds.
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“Another good stage for us to be honest. The feeling is good. We cannot do more to be honest. We lose
the traction and we are in the soft ground. I felt like I was doing well but we need to find more
performance.”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“Now it is better. Maybe we need to dial in the set-up of the car a bit. We changed something and it seems
to be better. Afternoon will be tricky when we go with the hard tyres.”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“The stage was fun. A bit challenging in there. It has been a better morning than we expected.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Feeling was a bit better to be honest. It’s not enough to challenge or trouble the guys behind. Nothing
going on but it’s not working quite as well as we would like.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“I think the hard tyre was not working very well. There was a lot of loose and I didn’t have a lot of traction.
I still enjoyed a lot the stage.”
Car 4. LAPPI/FERM
Dropped 16 seconds. “To be honest I don’t know. I am quite surprised. I thought it was quite fine.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
Did not start the stage on time after voltage issues on the opening two stages.
Car 7. LOUBET/LANDAIS
Stopped at the stage finish with a burning smell in the car and pulled to the side of the road. Marshals
were on hand with a fire extinguisher and any potential issues were quickly resolved.
Car 31. PAJARI/MÄLKÖNEN
Stopped after 4km of the stage.